Dead Silence
by Satan Abraham
Summary: After coming to America, Noriko has joined a creative writing class. [twoshot] [post-program] [book/manga!verse]
1. Chapter 1

When Noriko Nakagawa finished reading, the room was dead silent. She glanced over everyone's faces, nervous to the core. It had been a while since she'd read out her poetry, and that had been in _English _instead of what she was used to. She thought that the poetry itself sounded better in Japanese, but they didn't look like they'd hated it.

She dipped her head and went back to her seat, clutching the paper she'd read from in both hands. The girl that sat next to her leaned over to talk to her.

"Did you really write that?" she asked, her eyes wide and blue and interested.

"Yes," Noriko said.

"It was super good! I bet it sounds great in… you're from Japan, right? I bet it sounds great in Japanese, too."

Noriko nodded. The girl, taking this as a sign to keep talking, continued.

"Was it hard learning English? I mean, it sounds great in English, and sometimes translated things… don't? Unless you wrote it in English…"

"I wrote it in Japanese," Noriko said. "I thought it might sound… bad. In English."

"No, no, it was_ great. _Way better than any poetry I've tried. I mean, I'm glad this is just creative writing instead of a poetry or prose class, because I can't write poetry worth shit," she said. "But I like hearing other people read out theirs. I mean, there's something so great about hearing someone read their own work, you know?"

Noriko blinked and nodded, a little hesitant. This girl was talking very quickly, and it seemed like her hands couldn't quite keep still, either. They tapped on the desk, twirled a pencil, messed with her hair…

"Oh, wow, I totally didn't introduce myself," the girl said. "I'm Andrea."

"Noriko Nakagawa," Noriko said. Andrea's smile widened, and she wondered if she'd done something wrong.

"Who's that guy that always comes and picks you up? The one with the guitar? Is he your boyfriend?"

Noriko, who was by now extremely overwhelmed, hesitated before nodding. She thought so. She still wasn't quite sure – they hadn't exactly talked about it, they'd been too busy getting on their feet and figuring out what they were doing, but… she thought so.

"Either way, the two of you are cute," Andrea said. "Do you think that you can read your poem in Japanese, too? I bet it sounds pretty."

Noriko did as she asked, and Andrea clapped when she was done. "Thank you," Noriko said, smiling a little. Andrea put a hand on her head.

"I'll buy you coffee," she said. "And I want you to try and teach me Japanese."

Noriko smiled at her, and then after an admonishment from the teacher, focused on what was being read next. This was a different sort of class than she was used to – everything was so casual, and so fun, and everyone talked over each other and ate things and drank energy drinks and coffee. Perhaps it was because it wasn't a traditional school setting, because it was a class that occurred every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday at night in the basement of the library at the closest University.

"I would like that," she whispered back, and Andrea gave her a smile.

America was turning out better than she was expecting.

* * *

><p><strong>This was requested by a user on Tumblr, who wanted Noriko reading her poetry to a class, post-Program. This could also be seen as the third part to 'American Elation' and 'Thunder and Lightning.'<strong>


	2. Chapter 2

Noriko Nakagawa with Shuuya behind her, holding his hand and craning her neck to look for Andrea. After class the day before, Andrea had told her where to find the coffee shop and told her to bring her boyfriend. Now Noriko was standing in the coffee shop, clutching Shuuya's hand, and wondering where Andrea was.

"Noriko! Over here!" Andrea called, waving her arm wildly. She'd claimed the couches near the window. She had a notebook in front of her and was tapping her pen against the glass top of the table with steady taps.

Noriko pulled Shuuya over. Shuuya had, apparently, recognized the music that was playing over the speakers and humming a little. His guitar was slung over his back like it always was – he never left the apartment without it – and he swung it over to the front to sit down.

"So you're the boyfriend!" Andrea said brightly. Shuuya gave her a slightly bemused but bright smile.

"Yeah," he said.

"What's your name? I don't know if Noriko told me, if she did I _totally _forgot, I'm so bad with names I forget my mom's name half the time, I swear."

"Nanahara," Shuuya said. He glanced around the coffee shop. "This is a nice place."

"I promised to buy coffee for you guys!" Andrea said. She beamed. "Didn't know what you would like, though! Here, I'll take your order and go up and get something for you. Ooh! Noriko, try my iced coffee. It's super good, you might want one."

Andrea shoved a cold cup into Noriko's hands and Noriko took a sip to be polite. It was _very _sweet. Shuuya would probably like it, though.

"You'd like it," she told Shuuya.

"Take a sip, try it out!" Andrea said.

Shuuya raised an eyebrow at her to make sure it was okay, and when she nodded he took the cup and took a drink.

"Yes," he said. "This is good."

"Alright! And you, Noriko? What do you want?"

"Just… just plain, please," Noriko said. Andrea snapped her fingers at Noriko.

"Got it. Iced mocha for Nanahara, black for Noriko. I will be back!"

With that, she swooped off, chatting a little bit with a few people on her way up to the counter. Shuuya put down Andrea's coffee as though he would be tempted to take another drink if he kept holding it.

"She reminds me of Yutaka," Shuuya said. His voice was low. "How much you want to bet her best friend is the coolest person in the world?"

Noriko put a hand over Shuuya's. "She's not that much like Seto," she said. "She's… bubbly. He was funny, right?"

"I get the same feeling from her that I got from him, though," Shuuya said. 'They're both just so… so _good. _So overwhelmingly good. God, I haven't even thought about Yutaka that much compared to other people. Compared to Shinji, or Sugimura, or- or Nobu-"

Shuuya bit down hard on his lower lip and Noriko leaned her head against his shoulder. Every now and then he got like this. He remembered all of their dead classmates and he broke down – she felt sad for them, too, of course; her best friends had died on that island. But she had to stay strong for Shuuya.

They sat in silence for a little bit. When Andrea came back, Shuuya wiped away his tears and took his coffee with a grin. Andrea looked between them, her smile fading a little.

"Are you guys okay?" she asked.

"We're fine," Noriko said. "We're just… thinking."

"Oh, yeah, you guys must've left behind friends and stuff, right?" Andrea asked, tilting her head to the side. Shuuya rubbed at his eyes again. "No, no, it's fine, you don't have to say anything. Look, come on, you guys teach me some Japanese! It's such a pretty language!"

Noriko smiled at Andrea, then switched her gaze to Shuuya. "You have coffee now," she reminded him, and Shuuya let out a choked laugh.

"Y-yeah," he said. He cleared his throat, wiped at his eyes again, and took a deep breath. "Alright. We'll teach you some Japanese."

* * *

><p><strong>A user on Tumblr requested a sequel to this oneshot, so I just decided to make it a twoshot.<strong>


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